1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a heat pipe assembly for thermally coupling a device to be cooled to the colder of two heat sinks while thermally isolating the device from the other.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Heat transfer devices generally include such conductors as copper red or pyrolytic carbon or a mechanically pumped refrigeration system which are generally expensive, heavy, and relatively inefficient as producing heat hysteresis with disturbance of the temperatures of the devices to be cooled. Two known devices are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,776,304 and 3,818,980. In the former patent, the wick structure at a third heat transfer surface is hydraulically isolated from the wick structure in the evaporator, thus preventing transfer of the working fluid, as a fluid, between the third heat transfer surface and the evaporator. It further requires external electrical power or other means to accomplish control of the device. Furthermore, the mode of control is limited to either an on or off condition. In the latter patent, the heat pipe with wick is interconnected to a reservoir with wick by a conduit without wick in which the reservoir does not serve as a heat pipe itself; therefore, it comprises a single, unswitchable heat pipe.